To keep pilots from quitting, the Air Force will let some stay in assignments longer

An F-22 pilot from the 95th Fighter Squadron based out of Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., gets situated in his aircraft prior to taking from Ämari Air Base, Estonia, Sept. 4, 2015, during a brief forward deployment. The Air Force is struggling with a shortage of fighter pilots in the face of increased hiring from civilian airlines, and is rolling out a series of incentives and new policies it hopes will convince pilots to stay in uniform. (Tech. Sgt. Ryan Crane/Air Force)

The Air Force on Thursday began allowing some experienced fighter pilots and weapon systems officers to stay in their assignments for three more years, as part of its ongoing effort to stop an alarming pilot exodus.

The new Second Assignment In-Place pilot program targets certain active duty 11F fighter pilots and 12F fighter weapon systems officers with less than a three-year active-duty service commitment serving as instructor or evaluator pilots. The program is voluntary.

To qualify, those pilots or WSOs must either be lieutenant colonels or lieutenant colonel selects with at least 17 years Total Active Federal Military Service, or majors who have been passed over for promotion with at least 14 years of service. They also must be serving at one of 16 wings, squadrons or groups under Air Education and Training Command, Air Combat Command, or Air Force Materiel Command.

Brig. Gen. Mike Koscheski, who last month was put in charge of an Aircrew Crisis Task Force dedicated to solving the pilot retention problem, said in a Wednesday interview that the program is meant to provide stability to pilots later in their careers. For example, he said, some have families and children in school, and they may want to avoid having to uproot them as part of a permanent change-of-station move every three years.

Koscheski said that the need for more stability was a common refrain heard from pilots and other aircrew members as the Air Force conducted interviews in the field, collected exit surveys from departing officers, and conducted an aircrew retention summit.

“They’re looking for stability, longer term, for all the reasons you can imagine ― family, kids in school, all of that,” Koscheski said. ”Stability is a common theme that‘s coming out of the aircrew force.”

To be eligible, Koscheski said, pilots or WSOs must be in the last six months of their three-year assignment and deemed ”vulnerable to move.” If an officer is accepted, he said, it essentially resets their clock to the beginning of the three-year assignment cycle.

Koscheski said no more than 10 officers from each unit will take part in the program, and the total population will probably be under 100. The Air Force will study how many officers accept the offer in the first four months and see what changes, if any, need to be made before deciding whether to broaden it to other pilots.

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For more than a year, top Air Force leaders have been sounding the alarm about the service’s fighter pilot shortfall, and the service has had trouble convincing pilots to pass up lucrative offers from the commercial airline industry. At the end of fiscal 2016, the active, Guard and Reserve components of the Air Force combined were looking at a shortfall of 1,555 pilots in all, including 1,211 fighter pilots.

Over the last year, the Air Force has rolled out several initiatives intended to stem that tide, including eliminating additional duties and adding more support staff to allow pilots more time in the cockpit, and by increasing financial incentives ― in some cases, considerably.

Some fighter pilots could get retention bonuses worth up to $455,000 over 13 years under the Air Force's latest version of its bonus program.

By: Stephen Losey

But despite those efforts, Koscheski said the shortfall is still likely to increase slightly by the end of fiscal 2017, although he couldn’t say by how much.

The problem, Koscheski said, is that the Air Force continues to lose more airmen to airlines as they further upped their hiring in 2017. Meanwhile, the Air Force’s production of new pilots has remained largely unchanged at about 1,200 a year.

The Air Force eventually wants to produce 1,400 new pilots each year. But, Koscheski said, there are a lot of factors that hamper pilot production, including weather, spare parts availability, maintenance shortfalls, and manning levels of instructor pilots, so it takes some time to make those shifts. By fiscal 2020, Koscheski said, the Air Force will start to be on the path to 1,400 per year.

In the meantime, he said, the Air Force is looking at other innovative ways to work with the civilian world to try to produce more pilots nationally. That could include partnering with civilian flying schools to try to recruit their graduates, who could use that experience to skip some parts of Air Force pilot training, he said. It could also mean holding incentive flights with the Civil Air Patrol, the Air Force’s auxiliary, to inspire young people to pursue careers in aviation, and helping Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets obtain private pilot licenses.

AMC created a task force to pull suggestions from more than 600 comments from airmen.

By: Charlsy Panzino

“The pilot shortage is a national pilot crisis, because the majors and the regionals are short of pilots as well,” Koscheski said. ”It‘s in all of our interests to get after the national pilot crisis.”

Koscheski said the Air Force is also planning to try to cut down on the amount of unnecessary computer-based training that keeps pilots out of cockpits, as well as hiring more civilians to serve in support staffs and take care of administrative work instead of pilots.